Overview

Print Roaming is an extension of pull-printing (print job after authentication at the MFD). With pull-printing, after a user sends a job to a printer, the user "pulls" the job to the printer — the user goes to a printer, authenticates and prints the job. This feature has several important advantages:

  • Flexibility: Users can send a print job and print the job at any MFD
  • Costs and environment: Reduces paper waste resulting from uncollected prints
  • Security: Users have to authenticate at the printer before documents are printed

With both Print Roaming and pull-printing, users can release their print jobs at any printer connected to Dispatcher Paragon.

Print Roaming is a key need for companies with multiple locations - users who move between the locations frequently need the ability to manage their print, copy and scan jobs without any additional changes in their habits. In practical terms - wherever the user is and needs to print, copy or scan, they can do so using a combination of the Print Roaming and Pull-Printing features of Dispatcher Paragon.

Print Roaming in Dispatcher Paragon is built upon SpoolerController and FlexiSpooler technologies. Print Roaming is established among two or more Spooler Controller components acting as peers, or among multiple Spooler Controllers and multiple FlexiSpoolers.

Description

Print Roaming is designed to meet the following requirements:

  1. The user can pick up submitted print jobs at any device connected to Dispatcher Paragon without any significant impact on wait times.
  2. The system administrator has an option to decrease system overhead by increasing wait times before jobs are available in more distant locations.

Two Print Roaming modes are available: near roaming and far roaming. Because peers need to share certain types of information (in a group), a Spooler Controller can belong to only one roaming group (members of which have access to all jobs in the group much faster) configured by the system administrator. Dispatcher Paragon provides multiple near-roaming and far-roaming groups in order to support a variety of environments.

Print Roaming within a single server (LAN)

In organizations with one server, no additional configuration is needed. Dispatcher Paragon provides Print Roaming with all connected devices.

Dispatcher Paragon does not modify print job data, so PDL-level compatibility between printers must be ensured by other means.

Print Roaming with multiple servers within a LAN (near-roaming mode)

In organizations with multiple Dispatcher Paragon servers, each hosted in its own location, Spooler Controller groups can be set up among the site servers. This requires additional CPU power and network resources in order to allow fast synchronization of print jobs among the group peers without noticeable delays to end users. This roaming mode uses synchronization protocols which efficiently distribute job metadata among all members of the Spooler Controller group. Print job data are kept in the storage of FlexiSpooler that received it and are delivered to the device where the user authenticates (using the Spooler Controller managing that particular device and the Spooler Controller managing the FlexiSpooler holding the print job data). This requires availability of Spooler Controller servers so that the information can be shared and delivered.

This is typically required when there are hundreds/thousands of users in a relatively small area on a high-speed, low-latency network (such as a LAN or sometimes even buildings co-located in one city).

Read Configuring Print Roaming for additional configuration details.

Print Roaming with multiple servers within a WAN (far-roaming mode)

When a company operates with several subsidiaries, even across multiple continents, users need print/copy/scan services to be available at all times. Users may need to (re)print a job sent to Dispatcher Paragon after traveling a longer distance. For this reason, system administrators may consider decreasing the network and CPU load, where users may notice delays (seconds to minutes, depending on the network and system configuration) before their jobs are available at devices connected to the destination.

This far roaming mode sends job metadata over the management server and support for UDP multicasting is not required for standard operation. However, the infrastructure will still provide high-performance networking to minimize the delay to job availability. This mode of operation is more robust, but is useful in situations where only a fraction of the users requires roaming for their operations (such as traveling sales staff, etc.).

This roaming mode can be disabled by enableFarRoaming configuration option. In that case print jobs would be roamed only within each Spooler Controller group and they would not be roamed among the groups nor standalone Spooler Controllers. By default this roaming mode is enabled.

Dependencies / Non-functional Requirements

  • Each printer must be equipped with a terminal (embedded, mobile terminal or a hardware terminal).
  • At least one Dispatcher Paragon Management Server must have a connection with a Spooler Controller and FlexiSpooler server(s) in every location required for near roaming or far roaming printing.
  • Global identity management (common for all Dispatcher Paragon servers in the network) must be established.
  • No extensions in a desktop application or any other client workstation tool is necessary. On the other hand, Print Roaming may introduce additional pop-up messages to be handled by the Dispatcher Paragon Desktop Interface.
  • The origin and the destination Spooler Controller servers in a near roaming or a far roaming scenario must be visible to each other on the network. The network must also provide the necessary bandwidth and low latency to eliminate any impact of the network on the availability of print jobs. Without network visibility and sufficient performance, near roaming or far roaming does not produce correct results and cannot be used!
  • To use far roaming, all Spooler Controller servers must have installed FlexiSpoolers in server mode.
  • Note: For a Spooler Controller group with more than 10 Spooler Controller servers, UDP Multicast must be enabled among servers!

Caveats and Limitations

  • Printer compatibility is defined based on the System Tags in the Management interface. The tag represents the capability of the printer, such as PDL-compatibility (PCL, PostScript, etc.) or feature such as Color, Duplex, Paper Size (Large/Small).
  • For near roaming mode, it is recommended to use a fiber optics network.
  • If a FlexiSpooler with print jobs fails, all print jobs stored on the failed FlexiSpooler are unavailable for release at terminals and users must re-submit the jobs from their workstations.
    • Shared network storage for print jobs can solve this problem. In this case, all print jobs are stored locally on a FlexiSpooler and remotely on a network shared storage.
  • With far roaming mode: 
    • When using Print Roaming (enabled by the license), all Spooler Controller servers are automatically configured for far roaming. Far roaming also works in near roaming (Spooler Controller group) and among Spooler Controller groups and standalone site servers. It is not possible to limit Print Roaming to only selected Spooler Controller servers or groups of them.
    • The following components of the Dispatcher Paragon system must be online, configured (both mentioned Spooler Controller servers are not in the same near-roaming group) and working properly: Management server, the FlexiSpooler the prints will be sent to, the Spooler Controller the FlexiSpooler is connected to, the Spooler Controller the printer/MFD is connected to, and the printer/MFD where the print job will be printed.
    • Users may notice delays (seconds to minutes, depending on the system configuration) in job availability at the terminals connected to the remote (other than origin of print) destination Spooler Controller, because Spooler Controller downloads information (metadata) about the user's print jobs every 5 minutes (by default). 
    • Users may notice delays (depending on the size of the print job and a network speed) in printing (i.e. time from pressing print button on terminal to time when the first paper comes out from the printer/MFD), because the print job data is downloaded from remote locations on demand. Print job data is not regularly synchronized. Only print job metadata are synchronized.